Everything Happens for a Reason
by britney-luby
Summary: Abby and Carter are married. They go to Croatia to help out during the war, where they meet Luka and Danijela. Will be LUBY!
1. Chapter 1

This story is written by both me and Theramis. It's the first story we've written together, but we've both written others before this one.

Disclaimer: We own nothing but the plot!

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**Everything Happens for a Reason**

Chapter 1

"Wow." Abby raised her eyebrows at the first sight of the plane that was going to take them halfway around the globe. "That is...what's the word? Crappy!"

"Well, if you had allowed me to set a private plane up, we would have already been served champagne and caviar," John said, lifting her bag and starting the fifty-yard walk to the small, dirty airplane that looked as if though it had been patched up several times.

"John! Stop it." Abby ran after her husband with an annoyed sigh. "You know I want to go as regular volunteers and not as some hypocrite adventure seeker!"

"I know." John stopped and turns her angry face up. "That's what I like about you." He kisses her softly, and chose to ignore that she stiffens when he touches her. He smothers a sigh and moves on.

Abby took his hand to make a mence for how she feels about him kissing her. She wasn't sure about when it started, but lately she'd been feeling more or less annoyed about everything John did or said that has anything whatsoever to do with her. And everything else for that matter. Hopefully this journey will bring them closer to each other. If not, they'll both be so packed up with work anyway. Which would mean that if they got tired of one another, they could easily find reasons not to spend time with each other elsewhere than in bed, sleeping.

They found their seats all the way in the back, right next to the not so clean restrooms. Abby noticed how her husband watched it in disgust.

"Look at it from the bright side, John. We'll be close if we need it."

"Yeah," He quickly shoved their bags into the little cabinet above the seats. "And too close if someone else uses it."

Abby just shook her head and rolled her eyes the way she always did. "Just sit down, Carter. I'll let you have the window seat." She had a thing with calling him Carter instead of John, when he really got on her nerves. But what annoyed her the most was, that he didn't even seem to notice.

"You know, I'm starting to think it's pretty weird when you call me Carter." "What?" Abby started to concentrate very hard on her left thumb nail. "It's your name, right Carter?"

"Yees," John raised his eyebrows. Tiny tiny eyebrows, Abby thought to herself as she forced herself to look at him with a questioning expression. "But that's also your name now, remember?"

"Yeah, but you know, maybe we could be like those poshy couples and call each other Mr. and Mrs. Carter. A bit kinky, but I bet your folks will be thrilled." John grunted and looked out through the window. It hit Abby that he hadn't even asked her if she wanted the window seat. She was starting to feel claustrophobic.

"I'm sorry, John. I crossed the line." She said in an attempt to lighten up the tension she created. Or was it only her? Why did her husband always have to be such a saint? He turned to her.

"It's ok" He took her hand and, if possible, it made her feel even worse. Of course he forgave her. What was it again? To sin is human, to forgive is divine. She could almost hear her lips crack as she forced herself to smile at him. Then she leaned back and looked forward, emptily. She could feel John's eyes on her for a little while, then he returned to looking out the window.

As the plane started to take off, Abby tightened her grip on the seat beneath her legs. She didn't want John to see that she was actually a little scared of flying, and especially taking off and landing. It reminded her about the time her mother wanted them to go to Sea World.

She looked over at her husband to see if he was as freaked out as she was, but he was just busy listening to his walkman. Of course the newest and most expensive one ever made.

After what seemed like forever, but was probably only a couple of minutes, the seatbelt sign turned off, making Abby relax a little bit. With nothing to do, she grabbed an old, ruined magazine from the seat in front of her.

When she opened it, it fell apart uncovering a big cloud of dust. Abby coughed and her eyes watered as breathing suddenly seemed to be a very big deal. When the dust finally seemed to leave her airway, she glanced at John, wondering why he hadn't dunked her back. He had fallen asleep with his music on the highest volume.

Abby knew that she should feel relieved that he at least wasn't ignoring her on purpose, but instead she felt an overwhelming need of strangling her husband. Since she couldn't do that, she settled with poking his side hard with her elbow.

"Oops!" She said innocently as he jumped. "I lost my grip" She immediately wanted to bite her tongue off. 'Lost her grip'?? But John just grunted, rolled over and...FELL BACK TO SLEEP. For a moment, Abby just stared at him, then she sighed and leaned back, trying to steel herself for a very long flight.

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We would really REALLY appreciate it if you reviewed. Good or bad! 


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay... here is 2nd chapter... Don't worry, the story will get better!**

**Rizzo1** - Thanks a lot. This chapter is also a little short. But have the first 6 (I think) chapters written already, but we'll try to make them longer.

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**Chapter 2**

They had just boarded their 2nd plane. They'd had to make a touch down in Heathrow. Fortunately, they'd only had to wait an hour, so Abby had spent the time looking in the souvenir stores while Carter had gotten himself a drink. He knew that Abby didn't drink, but he still thought he deserved one last drink. You never knew if you were able to get good drinks in a war stricken country. And you never knew when you were going to need it. He had seriously been thinking about bringing a bottle of something really strong, but for safety reasons they weren't allowed to bring liquids into the camps.

"Chicken or lasagne?" Both Abby and John looked up at the stewardess.  
"I think I'll go with the chicken." She nodded at Abby and looked at John.

"None please. I'm a vegetarian. But do you have any alcohol?" He saw Abby giving him a dead stare as the stewardess nodded, so he quickly looked back up again. "Or you know what? I'll just take a cup of coffee instead."

Abby looked around the plane. He was glad that her x-raying eyes weren't pointed at him. "Do you think all these are volunteers?" She asked him quietly, but not quietly enough. John felt that he was blushing when he noticed the man sitting in front of them moving his head.

"Yeah" He mumbled barely hearable to Abby. "I mean, who else would be stupid enough to fly straight into the middle of a war?"

When Abby didn't say anything, he turned his attention back to his coffee. Sometimes, it seemed like she never thought before speaking. Or maybe it was just because she was blond. Well, not true blond, but highlighted blond. Wasn't this what they called Kinder Egg in school? Brown on the outside but white on the inside.

He felt a blush crawling over his face merely for thinking such things about his wife. But lately she had seemed so reckless and careless to him that even though she was one of the brightest people he had ever known, he confused her bluntness for stupidity more often than he would have preferred to. He sighed and turned his walkman on. It had turned out to be a lifesaver. It isolated him from the world but instead of seeming unsocial he just appeared to be really into music. Or at least that was what he liked to think.

Fortunately, this plane ride wasn't as long as the first one. Not that he minded flying, he just felt awkward being stuck with Abby in that little plane, not knowing what to say or how to act.

"Want a piece of gum?" He actually hated the silence between them, he just didn't want to admit it. So he decided that he couldn't loose anything by making pointless small talk.

"I don't think so." Abby said and he noticed that she was a little pale. "What if we hit a turbulence and it gets stuck in my throat? Thanks anyway." She added. He shrugged his shoulders. Maybe he should just give up. Not just small talking in an airplane, but the whole thing. He felt a sting in his heart while thinking that. Didn't he love her anymore? He regarded her.

She was sucking on her cheeks in that way that looked so funny that she couldn't possibly be aware of that she was doing it. It had always made him warm inside, it was like she let out a piece of herself that only he could see. He sighed again. It didn't make things less complicated that he was actually quite certain that he still loved her.

He decided that the only way to stop thinking about that right now, seeing as she was sitting right next to him, was to fall asleep. He was probably gonna need all the sleep he could anyway, since they wouldn't have too much time to do that, once they got there. Folding his sweater, he put it under his head and quickly drifted to sleep.

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	3. Chapter 3

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When they arrived in the landing field, the sun had just begun to crawl up on the horizon. Abby was surprised by the heat washing over her as they left the plane to receive their bags. She realized that she would have to remake most of the clothes she had brought.

They went to the luggage department. Their bags didn't come rolling out, they were all just dumped on each other for the voyagers to look for their luggage themselves.  
"I told you we should have gotten a private jet." Abby just ignored him as she pulled out her bag from the bottom. Sometimes it was a lot easier pretending like she didn't know him.

"Do you think they have cabs here?" This time she turned around and gave him a disapproving look, while throwing his bag at him.

"They'll probably have a huge limo, or maybe even the royal horse carriage waiting for us outside."  
John made one of those grunts that seemed to be his true area of expertise, and he started walking towards a bus marked with a red cross. Abby followed with a sigh. He always found a way to feel offended by her, it never seemed to occur to him that his naïve nature might annoy others sometimes. He probably didn't even know that he was a naïve. She wouldn't have been surprised if he had declared himself the Realist King.

There were only 2 other people at by the bus, plus the bus driver. They were still waiting for one more doctor from Germany, who's plane would land in a few minutes.

John sat down on the front seat of the bus. Abby had stayed outside, where she was chatting with the one of other doctors.

He took a magazine out of his bag and waved it in front of him, trying to get some air. Hadn't they ever heard about air-conditioning outside of the U.S.?

Abby felt a tingle inside her. She was excited as well as nervous and even a bit frightened. What did they have to expect? And what would be expected from them? She had barely finished med school, and throwing herself into a war was almost the first thing she did as an MD. In a way, she was happy not to be doing it alone, but when John had first said that he would come with her, she had found herself almost disappointed. But she would have to shake those thoughts of, he was her husband for god's sake!

They were now on their way to the camp where they would be staying. They hadn't been driving for very long, but she was already shocked by how ruined everything was. Some of the buildings were almost gone, and others looked like they were about to fall apart. There wee a lot of dead dogs and cat's laying on the street, and even a few humans. She swallowed hard as they drove by a group of kids who looked like they'd been living on the streets in forever, digging in a trashcan in an alley, trying to find something to eat.

"Is it this bad everywhere?" She didn't really ask anyone in particular. She was just thinking out loud. The driver looked at her in the rear-view mirror, but she didn't notice. She was too caught by the scene outside the bus.

"No," Abby quickly glanced up at him in the mirror before turning her attention back to the window. "Some places are a lot worse."  
Abby swallowed hard once again. She had a hard time trying to imagine anything worse than children starving in 100 degrees heat, so she decided she wouldn't try to imagine it. She looked at John. For once he seemed to feel the same way she did. She looked back through the window, knowing that when she got off this bus there would be no going back.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hi... Sorry for taking so long...__  
Thank you so much to all the people who reviewed...  
We know the first couple of chapters were kind of short, but this one is longer :P  
Anyways, here is the next chap... enjoy (or well, try to at least :P )

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Chapter 4 

He was separated from Abby almost as soon as they got to the camp. They were briefly introduced to Dr Robert Romano who was in charge of this camp, and then the were ordered to different medical care tents to tend to wounded soldiers and civilians. All they knew was that there would be a Croatian doctor in each tent to tell them what to do.

_When he entered the tent he walked right into a nurse, who had her arms full of used, bloody bandages._

_"Sorry." She didn't look up, just continued almost running over to a big white basket where she threw the bandages in. She had long, very curly, and almost black hair. She was pretty tall, probably about 4 inches taller that Abby. Her accent was very thick, and Carter guessed that she was probably Croatian.  
_"Are you the American doctor?" The woman asked him. Before he had answered a little girl ran by, bumped into him and almost made him fall. Just after that an even smaller boy passed him on the other side and the dark-haired women started yelling at the children in Croatian. John heard her say the word "sorry" and then both children stood in front of him, and the girl, who looked as if though she was one or two years older, said: "Sorry." Then she smiled at him and he felt a little tingle inside. She was really adorable. "It's ok." John laughed. "Just be careful around all the dangerous stuff around here." The girl frowned her forehead and turned to the woman who said something in Croatian. Then she smiled again at Carter, took the boy's hand and they both ran off.

"My children." The woman explained. "I apologize. I'm Danijela Kovac. You are the American doctor, aren't you?"

"John Carter." He introduced himself. "Nice to meet you."

_"You too. Follow me. I'll show you Dr. Kovac." John nodded and followed her to the other end of the tent. Dr. Kovac. Did that mean they were married? He heard Danijela say something in Croatian, and a tall guy came over._

_"I'm Dr. Kovac. You must be Dr. Carter. Welcome to Yugoslavia." John shook his hand and smiled at the big Croatian doctor._

_"Nice to meet you too."_ He really was very, very tall, and muscular too. John, who wasn't short himself, felt small facing this Croatian giant. Dr. Kovac waved at John to follow him and he did.  
"As you can see it's very busy here." Dr Kovac said briefly as they moved into the tent, passing bleeding and crying people. "The Serbs attacked a village nearby last night, and we've been doing the best we can to help as many as possible. The work is simple. Do your best to help as many as you can as much as you can, as fast as you can. It's important not to linger with one person, there are too many who needs to be examined."

He chuckled at John's overwhelmed face.

"Are you changing your mind?" He asked. "You get used to it. Here is a stethoscope, if anyone asks you something you don't understand, ask me or my wife and we'll interpretate. Good luck!"  
"Wait a second!" John shouted after him when he walked away. "How long are the shifts?" "They say that they are 24 hours, but I've been working for 37 now, and I still don't know if I'll get any sleep tonight. Does that answer your question?" John noticed now that Dr. Kovac's eyes were hollow and that he looked very worn out. He nodded and turned around to get to work.

_In the other end of the camp, Abby had just found her tent. Right now she was watching a nurse having trouble putting a bandage around a little boy's arm, since he wouldn't sit still. One of the other nurses had told her to wait there while she would look for a doctor._

_"Are you Dr. Carter?" Abby turned around and looked at the old grey-haired doctor._

_"Yes," She held her hand out for him to shake it. "Abby Carter."_

_"I'm Doctor Bavic." His accent was very thick and he was pretty tall. "We're very busy right now, so just start working. See as many people as possible. If someone's very hurt, we probably don't have the resources to save them, so go on to the next person, someone with a chance of surviving." Abby just nodded. She already didn't like this guy.  
_"I must admit, I expected male doctor." Dr Bavic said when he showed her where she was going to be. Yeah, Abby thought to herself. I expected someone who spoke English, you sucker. She didn't say any of it, just smiled at Dr Bavic while she followed him. He frowned and shook his head, muttering "Americana". Now she couldn't help smiling. This guy was a caricature. To her big relief, he had no interest whatsoever in her after showing her to a line of people waiting to be examined and handing her a stethoscope. She was still laughing at him to herself when she took a look at her first Croatian patient, a woman with two broken ribs who seemed to think it was her Abby was laughing at. Abby tried to mimic the manners of Dr Bavic to make the woman understand that she wasn't making fun of her, but the woman just kept glaring accusingly at her. Not a great start.

_A couple of hours later, Abby had almost gotten a hold of what to do. Besides from the first patient, they had all gone pretty good. The little kids weren't too scared of her, some even liked her, and the rest of the staff already trusted her completely  
_She was beginning to feel hungry though, since she hadn't eaten all day. She looked around her, as if though she expected to find something edible lying on the earth floor. A nurse who saw her laughed a little.

"Hungry?" She asked with a British accent. "They bring food for us out here in the tents, but it could take a while between deliveries. Especially on busy times like this."  
"When you need food the most." Abby moaned while writing a prescription for a little boy who needed penicillin.  
"I'm Abby by the way." She held out her hand towards the nurse while the boy scooted off to his mother. "Sarah." The British nurse shook her hand. "I've been here since a month after the war started, so I know everything about this place." She blinked.  
"Good, I'll bug you with my questions later." Abby laughed.  
Abby turned her attention back to her patient,, but a few seconds later she heard the sound of someone puking. When she turned around she saw Sarah covered in puke. "Nice." She said it sarcastic, while feeling sorry for the nurse.  
Sarah shook her arms and looked at Abby. "You'll get used to things like this happening." Abby let out a little chuckle and shook her head.  
"Believe me, I'm used to it already."

Sarah looked curiously at her and Abby started to explain: "Back in Chicago, my husband and I worked in the ER at County General Hospital. Hardly a single shift goes by without either being covered in puke yourself or see someone else be." She chuckled at her words, when she said it out like this, it sounded unbelievable that someone could actually want that. But she always had and always would love her work.


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